A new report commissioned by Rackspace found large enterprises in Hong Kong could lose out on revenue as 84% of IT decision makers revealed they don’t have relevant cloud expertise.

The report found that large enterprises across the globe lose out on US$258.2million a year as a result of a cloud skills gap.

Lack of expertise is stifling creativity, with 80% of IT pros saying they could bring greater innovation to their organisation with the right cloud insight; 44% of IT decision makers believe a lack of skills is causing a lag in their organisation’s ability to deploy cloud platforms and 77% believe they need to invest more in their workforce to meet the developmental challenges of cloud computing.

Over 50% of IT decision makers also said they find it hard to recruit the right talent to help manage their organisation’s clouds and that a lack of expertise is holding their business back.

John Engates, CTO at Rackspace, said: “With technology and the cloud now underpinning business transformation, the growing technology skills gap means organisations must have a strategy to access the expertise needed.”

Written by Leah Alger